I recently looked into building a set. Even with my machine shop I was unable to do it for any savings. My stumbling block was the wheels and hubs. At only 2 pcs for a set of trax the prices were just too high. I found out why the Cat Trax and the Tiger Trax have such a large disparity in price. Since the axel and bearings are the same it came down to the wheels and hubs.

The most time consuming operation to making a set is cutting the Delrin rod to the right length for the bearings.

If anyone has found a cheap compatible source of wheels for this project, let us know.

I ended up buying a pair of Cat Trax for $425. It was the cheapest one out there.

I made some out of a piece of conduit and some Dr Pepper surup containers. They are blue and about 2 feet around and three feet long. Get two connectors for holding conduit together and cut them in half. You will use these to keep the wheels in place. Then if you have round hulls get some cradles. If you don't need cradles this will cost mayde $50. Very light nand won't rust. Hope this is helpful. Let me know.

Find yourself two wheels for a hand truck or wheelbarrow. You'll want to get the widest wheel possible. Unfortunately most are about 4", 8" wide would be superb. If you've got a H18 forget about using something 4" wide, you'll never move it, especially on sand.

Knock the bearings out of the wheels and use a round file to "straighten", or remove, the taper. Then it's off to the hardware store (with one wheel) to find the largest piece of piece of metal pipe that will fit inside for the axle (a heavy wall that won't bend easily) and a piece of plastic pipe large enough to slide over your metal axle.

Next is the creative part. Something is going to attach to a 8 to 12 inch piece of your plastic pipe to make the cradles.

This is where we get the input from all those superior minds out there (Sailors are such resourceful people)

Two short 2" pieces of plastic pipe are fixed (screwed, glued) to the metal pipe to the insides of the wheels at your determined width, slide on the wheels, slide on the cradles, bolt through the metal pipe? to keep everything in place?

There are a lot of variations and possibilities here. I'm interested in hearing ideas.

I haven't located the "right" wheels just yet. Harbour freight had their (what looked to be 4" in the ad) dolly wheels on sale for $4.99 each, might be OK for a 14.

That was my stumbling block. Where to get wheels big enough to move an 18 over soft sand. I found them, but they were expensive. I cound't get the cost below the Cat Trax price and I didn't have the time to wait around to find the wheels.

Call around to a Coke or Dr Pepper or whatever brand of soda bottler is near you and see who they sell there used containers of surup too. The container are about 2 feet around and 3 fwet high aprox. I payed $ 20 or so for them. Conduit and conncetors you can get from an elctrical supply store for about the same. You will need 2 connectors and you cut them in half and put one on each side of the wheels to hold them in place next to the hulls. The cradles will cost you about $ 90 from www.murrays.com unless you have the knowledge to make them are can find some used ones. I tried to find the article I used but On The Wire no longer was it. Good luck and let in know how it goes. This is the easeist route

To make your own cradles, you can use okume plywood, epoxy resin and carpet. You will need to cover your hulls with some plastic wrap or something else that epoxy doesn't bond with well. Take some very thin sheets of plywood and "wrap" them around the covered part of the hull. You will need at least two layers to accomplish this. Appy the epoxy to the mating faces of each layer. The hard part here is clamping the layer of plywood to the hulls.

Next, cover these first layers of plywood with the plastic wrap and repeat the process until you have about 3/4" to 1" of thickness on the second set of plywood layers. The first ones are just spacers so you have somewhere to put the carpet without it being to snug on the hulls.

Remove both "stages" from the hulls, finish the edges, and line with indoor/outdoor carpet or whatever you want. Then, make a mounting block that you can attach to the cat trax or the trailer.

There is a guy on the www.clcboats.com forum (these are plywood kayaks) that made a set of J cradles like this. He has more detail on how to do this kind of work.

I was also looking to make some cat trax. My thought was if I could find a set of ATV tires with the tread to worn out to use for an ATV, I'be be part way there. Not too sure what some old rims might cost. I'm pretty sure they're tubeless, so they would have to be not too rusted.

I have a 14' Aluminum boat with an outboard that I run on "Turf Tires", for lawn tractors, but I don't think they're big enough for a Hobie, especially on soft or rough ground.

There are some used golf cart tires and wheels on ebay $12 & $8 each depending on tread, nice and wide. They won't reply with shipping costs but it should be an indication of what we could buy them for locally. They have about a 3" diameter hole with four by 4" bolt circle.

I'm thinking the weight of the tire/wheel would be more like an "unsprung" weight if you will. You're going to initially start an object moving that weighs about 430 pounds, and you're adding the weight of the Cat trax at 40-50 pounds or 10%? I'd say the major significance of the tire is not "their" weight, but are they wide enough for support and large enough in diameter to get the boat rolling.

My biggest problem with weight is I usually go out for an 8 - 10 hour day with only about an hour total of breaks. By the end of the day, I just don't have the energy and/or strength to move any extra weight around. I am actually working on a portable beach wench that I can use to haul the boat up the incline of the beach. Our launch site is very steep with very soft sand and it takes at least two peole pull the boat all the way up. That extra 10% addes up on the incline.

There is a company that makes a plastic wheel for docks. The wheel is 24" in diameter, 8" wide and weighs 12 pounds. Each wheel will support 700 pounds. They used to cost about $30 each, but now I think they are $42. I got 2 of them, put a 10' x 1.5" pipe thru them and roll my Getaway to and from the beach. When I'm done, I strap the pipe on the trailer and throw the wheels in the back of the car. Very simple - very cheap. The company is called Premier Materials. www.premiermaterials.com